Russian President Vladimir Putin sat down on June 19, 2019, in the Kremlin, for an on the record interview with Oliver Stone. The Russian government has released a transcript of the interview.

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Below is Putin’s discussion with Stone about the 2016 presidential election.

Oliver Stone: Yes. So recently, you know Russia has been obviously accused and accused over and over again of interference in the 2016 election. As far as I know there is no proof, it has not turned up. But now in the US there has been an investigation going on about Ukraine’s interference in the election. It seems that it was a very confusing situation, and Poroshenko seems to have been very strongly pro-Clinton, anti-Trump.

Vladimir Putin:Yes, this is no secret.

Oliver Stone: Do you think there was interference?

Vladimir Putin: I do not think that this could be interpreted as interference by Ukraine. But it is perfectly obvious that Ukrainian oligarchs gave money to Trump’s opponents. I do not know whether they did this by themselves or with the knowledge of the authorities.

Oliver Stone: Where they giving information to the Clinton campaign?

Vladimir Putin: I do not know. I am being honest. I will not speak about what I do not know. I have enough problems of my own. They assumed Mrs Clinton would win and did everything to show loyalty to the future US administration. That is nothing special. They wanted the future President to have a good opinion of them. This is why they allowed themselves to make unflattering statements about Trump and supported the Democrats in every possible way. This is no secret at all. They acted almost in public.

Oliver Stone: You do not want to go any further on that because you do not have any information?

Vladimir Putin: You know, this would be inappropriate on my part. If I said something more specific, I would have to put some documents, some papers on the table.

Oliver Stone: You understand that it has huge implications because Mr Trump would be very grateful?

Vladimir Putin:I did not interfere then, I do not want to interfere now, and I am not going to interfere in the future.

Oliver Stone: But that is a noble motive. Unfortunately, the world has degenerated in these two years, with all this backbiting and accusations, dirty fighting. Anyway…

Vladimir Putin:There are no rules at all. It is no holds barred.

Oliver Stone: Well, you have rules. You say no interference.

Vladimir Putin: I have principles.

Oliver Stone: Ok. But you seem to have rules based on those principles.

Oliver Stone: Yes. If you knew something about the election, it would tilt the balance in a very weird way.

Vladimir Putin: I think this is simply unrealistic. I have said so many times.

Oliver Stone: What is unrealistic?

Vladimir Putin: To change anything. If you want to return to US elections again – look, it is a huge country, a huge nation with its own problems, with its own views on what is good and what is bad, and with an understanding that in the past few years, say ten years, nothing has changed for the better for the middle class despite the enormous growth of prosperity for the ruling class and the wealthy. This is a fact that Trump’s election team understood. He understood this himself and made the most of it.

No matter what our bloggers – or whoever’s job it is to comment on the internet – might say about the situation in the US, this could not have played a decisive role. It is sheer nonsense. But our sympathies were with him because he said he wanted to restore normal relations with Russia. What is bad about that? Of course, we can only welcome this position.

Oliver Stone: Apparently, it excited the Clinton people a lot. The Clinton campaign accumulated the “Steele dossier.” They paid for it. It came from strange sources, the whole “Steele dossier” issue. Some of it comes from Ukraine. They also went out of their way, it seems to me, with the CIA, with Mr Brennan, John Brennan, and with Clapper, James Clapper, and Comey of the FBI. They all seem to have gotten involved, all intelligence agencies, in an anti-Trump way.

Vladimir Putin: They had levers inside the government, but there is nothing like that here. They applied administrative pressure. It always gives an advantage in countries such as the USA, some countries of Western Europe, about 2 percent on average, at a minimum.

Oliver Stone: Two percent? What are you talking about?

Vladimir Putin: Yes. According to experts, those with administrative pressure they can apply always have a 2 percent edge. You can look at it differently. Some experts believe that in different countries, it can vary, but in countries such as the United States, some European countries, the advantage is 2 percent. This is what experts say, they can be wrong.

Oliver Stone: I do not know. I heard of the one percent, but it seems to get more like 12 percent.

Vladimir Putin: That is possible, depending on how it is used.

Oliver Stone: Well, you are not disagreeing. You are saying that it was quite possible that there was an attempt to prevent Donald Trump from coming into office with a soft, I will call it a soft coup d’état?

Vladimir Putin: In the USA?

Oliver Stone: Yes.

Vladimir Putin: It is still going on.

Oliver Stone: A coup d’état is planned by people who have power inside.

Vladimir Putin: No, I do not mean that. I mean lack of respect for the will of the voters. I think it was unprecedented in the history of the United States.

Oliver Stone: What was unprecedented?

Vladimir Putin:It was the first time the losing side does not want to admit defeat and does not respect the will of the voters.

* * *

[RW note: Putin is the most level headed guy around. Here he is on the inconsistent moves of Trump]:

Oliver Stone: Ok, but beyond Poroshenko, the United States has a shadow here. The United States knows what he is doing, and supported it.

Vladimir Putin: Absolutely.

Oliver Stone: It is the creation of a strategy of tension that worries me enormously. I have seen this happen in so many places now. I think I read on Monday, the Russian bombers, the Russian SU-57 escorted, what was it, the B-52 bomber, a nuclear bomber, US bomber, close to the Russian borders.

Vladimir Putin: The Su-57 aircraft are just entering service. This is a fifth-generation jet fighter. It was the Su-27 that was mentioned.

Oliver Stone: Do you think that is normal?

Vladimir Putin:Actually, it is sad, probably, but this is common practice. US aircraft did not enter our airspace, and our aircraft did not conduct any high-risk maneuvers. But generally speaking, this is not great. Just look where the Baltic or Black seas are located, and where the USA is. It was not us who approached US borders, but US aircraft that approached ours. Such practices had better stop.

Oliver Stone: In this continuing strategy of tension, there was a report in The New York Times last week that the Obama Administration, before they left office, put in what they call a cyber warfare device. It was inserted in Russian infrastructure in January 2017.

Vladimir Putin: This is being discussed almost openly. It was said Russia would be punished for interfering in the election campaign. We do not see anything extraordinary or unexpected here. This should be followed closely. That is the first thing. The second is I believe that we only need to negotiate how we are to live in this high-tech world and develop uniform rules and means of monitoring each other’s actions. We have repeatedly proposed holding talks on this subject to come to some binding agreement.

Oliver Stone: Continuing that theme of strategy of tension, how is Russia affected by the US-Iranian confrontation?

Vladimir Putin: This worries us because this is happening near our borders. This may destabilize the situation around Iran, affect some countries with which we have very close relations, causing additional refugee flows on a large scale plus substantially damage the world economy as well as the global energy sector. All this is extremely disturbing. Therefore we would welcome any improvement when it comes to relations between the US and Iran. A simple escalation of tension will not be advantageous for anyone. It seems to me that this is also the case with the US. One might think that there are only benefits here, but there will be setbacks as well. The positive and negative factors have to be calculated.

Oliver Stone: Yeah. Scary.

Vladimir Putin: No, this is not scary.

Oliver Stone:You sound very depressed, much more depressed than last time.

Vladimir Putin: Last time the situation concerning Iran was not like this. Last time nobody said anything about getting into our energy and other networks. Last time the developments were more positive.

Oliver Stone: The situation is worse now?

Vladimir Putin: Take North Korea, they have also rolled back a bit. Trade wars are unfolding.

Oliver Stone: Venezuela.

Vladimir Putin: Venezuela as well. In other words, regrettably, the situation has not improved, so there is nothing special to be happy about. On the other hand, we feel confident. We have no problems.

Oliver Stone: Well, you are an optimist, and always have been?

Vladimir Putin: Exactly.

Oliver Stone: You are a peacemaker.

Vladimir Putin: Absolutely spot on.

Oliver Stone: So obviously, you have to get together with the Americans, and the Chinese, and the Iranians. I know.

Vladimir Putin: Just do not put the blame on us. Lately no matter what is happening, we always get the blame.

Oliver Stone: Well, the irony is that Mr Trump came to office promising that he was not going to interfere in other countries. He made this overall strategy, he was against the wars that we have started, and ever since he has been in office, it has got worse. Why, one wonders? Is he in charge, or are other people pushing these agendas?

Vladimir Putin: I think he is against this now, too. But life is complicated and diverse. To make the right decision it is necessary to fight for what you believe in.

31 COMMENTS

There is a certain level of mistrust here, but as far as Ukraine is concerned, isn’t a foreign nation making contributions to an American candidate for President a bit on the south side of legal? If she or her “team” accepted this money, what does that say about her and her “team”? We all know about her and the accusations of her criminal activities over the years, so it’s no surprise to me that this probably happened as Putin said it did. We will never know, will we.

The deep state will make sure the public never finds out the truth…That is how this country is run…The less people know the better it is for the deep state to control each and every situation…here or abroad or in the political arena…The American public is kept uninformed as the deep state uses both political parties plus the MSM to their advantage…There is no end to the deep state…neither Congress nor the President could oust it…it is so deeply embedded within our government it will never cease to exist…”We’ll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American Public believes is false”…William Casey, Director CIA 1981-1987

But if he said they sent money to Trump , I bet you would be believe him then. We want to believe Russians on a fake dossier but we dont want to believe them when crimes are coming from the Clintons. Got it…

Russian collision is REAL! DemocRats are “Russian trolls!” Yes, The Russia Scandal Is Real And It Involves democRats Hillary Clinton and OhomoObozo….NOT TRUMP! And liberals = “Russian trolls” only they are WAY too stupid to realize that fact!Why would the Marxist government of Russia want to help the capitalist American Presidential candidate “Trump” over the Marxist American Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton? Answer THEY WOULDN’T!

#1 Candidate Trump ran on a platform of rebuilding Obamas decimated U.S. military. Thats the LAST thing Putin/Russia wanted!

#2 Under the Obama/Hillary administration Putin/Russia took over Crimea and Syira and Obama/Hillary did NOTHING.

#3 Under the Obama/Hillary administration they sold Putin/Russia 20% of our U.S.A. uranium!

#4 And then reset the “Cold War” with their stupid plastic Russian reset button!

# 5 Hillary Clinton and the DNC colluded with and paid the Russians 12 million for a FAKE Russian Dossier!

If you want to know who “colluded” stupid liberals you first need an IQ over 19. That excludes 100% of all liberals! Everybody else will simply follow the Money!

President Trump received and gave ZERO DOLLARS from Russia!

Russia was engaged in bribery ($500,000 to Bill Clinton), kickbacks ($145 million to the Clinton Foundation)

And why? Because the Russians believed as did Omuslim and EVERY liberal in the USA believed…..That Hillary would be the next President of the United States! And Hillary would owe them a favor or two!

It is amazing how the Russians brainwashed the American public via the Internet to convince us to vote for Trump…I am having a hard time convincing myself I let this happen because I voted for Trump instead of Hillary…I am about ready to throw my computer into the trash bin just to get away from those pesky Russians knowing now how they had influenced me to vote for an illegitimate President…Damn those Russians…Damn the Internet.

OhomoObozo ““The 1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back because the Cold War’s been over for 20 years.”

Cue a bunch of clueless stupid liberal laughter!

And a few months into OhomoObozos second term Putin then annexes Crimea! And lets NOT forget Obama and Hillarys stupid plastic misspelled Russian reset button that reset the Cold War!

Liberals ALWAYS WRONG! But damn proud of themselves….

What happen to Mueller Time? How is that Trump Russian collusion thing working out for all you stupid liberals? Hey libs.. Looks like Mueller Time..is measured in Light Years..

Obama was the WORST president in U.S. HISTORY had 8 years in office to corrupt all branches of the federal bureaucracy. In a text from August 15, 2016, Strzok tells Page: “I want to believe the path you threw out for consideration in Andy’s office” — an apparent reference to Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe — “that there’s no way he gets elected — but I’m afraid we can’t take that risk. It’s like an insurance policy in the unlikely event you die before you’re 40.” And lets NOT forget about the disgraced former FBI Director James Comey!

Strzok, the FBI agent investigated Trump and also did the Hillary Clinton e-mail investigation and found nothing wrong. McCabe former assistant FBI director ( whose wife received $700,000 gift for her political campaign from the Clinton’s by way of Virginia Governor McAuliffe-Bill Clinton’s best friend) Bribery??? Collusion???

From congressional hearings with the assistant attorney general being questioned about bias and conspiracy coming from within the Mueller investigation. Looks like we found the collusion.﻿

The Russian “collusion” rests with the Democrats…they a fighting tooth and nail to clear themselves of their involvement with the Russians…pointing their fingers at President Trump instead…in retaliation for President Trump beating the pants off Hillary Clinton at the polls…Thus they claim Trump is an illegitimate President elected by the Russians therefore this President needs to be impeached…for any reason or un-reason…mostly made up claims in their quest to find Trump guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors…Will Robert Mueller support their claims come Wednesday
…more than likely the liberal MSM will add fuel to the fire after Mueller testifies and the Democrats will definitely go for impeachment proceeding…Mueller’s testimony will either hang or clear Trump of any wrong doing…It is a disgrace what the Democrats are doing to this President…Let us hope Mueller, the Democrats, the MSM, and the deep states agenda to get Trump will fail…and the investigation will fall flat on it’s face.

Vladimir Putin: It was the first time the losing side does not want to admit defeat and does not respect the will of the voters.

Shows Russia is keeping up with what is happening. I agree with Putin that their ‘hackers’ didn’t make much of a difference in the election (with all the Facebook and other social media crap). I highly doubt anyone hacked into any local government election database. I sincerely believe a Demonrat hacker or operative tried something. The DNC database WAS hacked according to the FBI, but the media tries SO hard to cover that up.
All this ‘meddling’ is coming out, and I sure hope they all go to prison. We the taxpayers will never get our money back . . .

If anything comes out of Putin’s mouth that is favorable to Trump it ill not be believed by the people that will resist his election win until the end, and if Trump wants to have favorable relations with Russia or any other country they will say he is sucking up and if he gets bold they will accuse him of starting a war . The president of the United States of America has been taken hostage for the first time in American history by the will of the opposite loosing party and their lust for power. These people have his hands tied behind his back and will not release him to serve his term as president and the world is watching and the world knows that the democrats lust for power is more important to them than the safety of the United States and our enemies are ready to pounce on us like hungry wolves because we have no unity and the democrats will not for one minute rally around our sitting president .

Is not the actions of the democratic congress personnel an act of aiding and helping the enemy. In my opinion a number of them have committed treason A tough accusation but the facts are there. Every American should read License to Lie.

The Democrats are more concerned with collusion with Russia by the Trump administration which Mueller did not find than they are with the collusion by the DNC with Russian operatives that Mueller did not investigate.

I’m not a great political mind by any means ,but from the very beginning of this farce my thoughts were why would they back Trump when they already knew hillary was dirty and would sellout her countrymen in a heartbeat, after all she and obama sold uranium to Russia

All the PROVEN various things Killary and Obummer have done; selling uranium, paying Millions in cash to Iran, accepting political donations from foreign countries, illegal secure, classified information on her Private email accounts, funding contributions. through Clinton foundation, and yet STILL being free to walk around, acting like the greatest thing since sliced bread, yet being TWO of the Biggest Elected Political Crooks in the history of U.S. government. Something is wrong in this picture. Sounds more like a Third World country, being run by Dictators, than a Nation founded on freedom and democracy.

This article and the resulting comments are some of the most insightful I’ve seen in a long time! I’m not a fan of Oliver Stone, but I’ve got to give him well-deserved kudos on this interview. As for Putin, one has to be wary of anything he says factoring in his KGB past and the given ruthlessness of any Communist regime. But I give him a grudging thumbs-up, too. He’s obviously a level-headed thinker and the intell he provided on the Russian Collusion issue is enlightening and believable. I would believe him before I would believe any of the professional liars in our progressive Dumbocrat Party and their MSM enablers. With all President Trump’s flaws and inflammatory tweets, he is the absolute best leader we could have at this time in history. If he can succeed in draining the swamp and Deep State players, exposing and jailing the entire Obama/Clinton treasonous “team”, and making accommodations with our Russian, Chinese, North Korean and Iranian adversaries, he’ll go go down in history as our greatest president of all time!

Russia won Crimea from the Ottoman Empire (Turks) in 1784. The Crimea has been a part of Russia for about 230 years. It was never a part of Ukraine. The people of Crimea
are mostly Russian with very few Ukrainians and Turks.

In case no -one knows the whitehouse has what they call the shadow people.which President Eisenhower talked about in his farewell speech,he said I only hope the young man who is taking my place doesn’t do anything to offend the shadow people because if he does he will be taken care of.and low and behold John Fitzgerald Kennedy did everything to disturb the shadow people during which every generation of politicians have been replaced by new shadow people that’s whats scarey they run the show not the President or vice President but the crummy shadow people who would rather stay in the background and boss the politicians around they themselves are politician who have been here for years if we break this mold and start the elections at only 8 year terms for everyone we may be able to get rid of the garbage.

If we Americans do not think that all countries are effecting other countries, you need to read some more histories. I would prefer Pres.Trump and Putin be talking about world affairs than not talking. In fact, I hope the president forces all the world to talk with him at all the world meetings he and VP Pence happen to attend. I have read that obozo DID make every effort to control Israel’s election a few yeas ago. That should of been wood shed talking point. MAGA